I've found the reactions of various bloggers to the idea of a blogger code of conduct to be quite interesting.
Most of what I've seen is along the lines of Ann Althouse, who says she just hates speech codes.
what I foresee is endless argument about the meaning of the terms in the rules and how the rules apply. These discussions will be tedious and full of self-serving assertions.
It's true the abusive trolls would want to dissect the meaning of various terms in any speech code, but the idea of a blogger code of conduct is that commenters would know up front what sorts of behavior are ok and which are not.
After all, if you go to, say, Echidne of the Snakes and see that she won the most polite blogger award, you probably assume that you will be treated with courtesy and respect, regardless of your opinions, by both the blogmaster and the commenters. Unfortunately, my experience was that it was fine with Ms. Echidne for her regulars to call me every possible name they could think of, but I was not allowed to respond in kind (at least until I pointed out to her that equality and fairness are components of true politeness).
But, amusingly, some bloggers (such as Captain Ed) argued along the lines of "A blogger code of conduct would stifle speech. We don't like to stifle speech. We just ask everybody to get a typekey account (and basically be vetted)." Other bloggers discussed the use of registration or moderation as ways to manage obnoxious trolls, never noting the irony of decrying a blogger code of conduct while using their own code of conduct.
Less amusingly, we have the dumbass who doesn't get it quote of the day from none other than KOS.
Calls for a "blogger code of conduct" are stupid, as is one of the chief justifications of it:The draft voluntary code follows incidents where a U.S. blogger and author received death threats by anonymous posters on her site.
I'm in and out of commission, so I hadn't heard of this so-called "death threat" thing. So I looked it up.Prominent blogger Kathy Sierra has called on the blogosphere to combat the culture of abuse online.
It follows a series of death threats which have forced her to cancel a public appearance and suspend her blog.
Ms Sierra described on her blog how she had been subject to a campaign of threats, including a post that featured a picture of her next to a noose.
Look, if you blog, and blog about controversial shit, you'll get idiotic emails. Most of the time, said "death threats" don't even exist -- evidenced by the fact that the crying bloggers and journalists always fail to produce said "death threats".
Obviously this guy hasn't figured out that death threats shouldn't be tolerated whether you think they are serious or not. For all the lefties who screamed about Ann Coulter suggesting someone put rat poison in John Paul Stevens Creme Brulee, it strikes me as just plain moronic to tell a fellow blogger to just "get over it" when she receives a death threat. Was this jackass as unsympathetic when Amanda Marcotte said she received tons of death threats? And she had documentation. Does that make her claims more credible than someone who didn't?
There's no way any code of conduct is going to stop jerks from being jerks. But the idea of a code of conduct is that you make a commitment not to facilitate the jerkiness of the jerks. That's all. For the people who think name-calling and lying make for entertaining blogs, then don't police your posts and comments.
But if you want readers who bring thoughtful comments, you might want to raise the standards a bit.
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